Blessed

I think it's funny, and a bit sad, that it takes a big tragedy in your life to make you realize how blessed you really are.  The sadness that filled my life on Monday, made me realize that I am blessed with so many friends who love me and care about me.  And not just friends that I've known for many years (though they were wonderful too).   These were freinds that I met here after moving.  These are other military wives and other teachers.  And even you guys.

I had so many people telling me that were praying for us.  I had so many people checking in on me.  And I had so many people share hugs and encouraging words.  Even though my biological  family was hours away, I was surround by my family in Christ.  God has truely blessed me with some amazing people.

It's Just Not Fair

I know that life's not fair, nor will it ever be.  I get that.  But there are some unfairnesses that really bother me.

Today, my sweet 5 month old niece passed away.  It's just not fair for a life to be so short and a mother to have to bury her baby.

It's not fair that the Red Cross only services immediate family members.  It's not fair that Anthony has to deal with the death of his niece from so far away and miss the service.  It's not fair that he's in even more danger because he can't concentrate on what he's doing because his heart and mind are somewhere else.

It's just not fair!  I want nothing more right now than to crawl into the arms of my husband, but instead, I sit on my couch alone.  I know that I'm supposed to be a strong military wife, and I have been.  I've dealt with all the things this deployment has thrown my way.  But I'm tired of being strong.  I'm human. 

Please keep Anthony and his famiily in your prayers. 

Sam and the Sprinkler

Earlier in the summer, I wrote about how my grandmother let Sam play in the sprinkler and how much he loved it.  Well, we're back home and I don't have a back yard or a water hose.  But, I do have a large area behind our apartment.  So, we went outside to play since he had been stuck in his crate a while today.  I let him off his leesh.  I threw the balll.  He chased the ball and ran back to me.  I then went after the ball (he's not real good at fetch) and threw it again.  We repeated this cycle several times and then he took off towards the apartment.  I was afraid he had spotted some poor, innocent person to lick to death.  But then he stopped. 

He spotted a sprinkler.  He was so excited.  He began trying to catch the water.  By the time I could get to him and get him away he was soaked. 

Anyway, I got him all dried off and came inside to call my grandmother.  I expected her to laugh.  Oh no, she was so excited that he was able to play in the sprinkler.

Back to Reality

It's back to reality now.  No more lazy days.  No more sitting in my pajamas until 2 every day.  No more weekly shopping trips with mom.  No more vacation to see Kimmie.  It's time to get back to work.  I have very mixed feelings about this.

On the plus side, I am one step closer to Anthony being done with this deployment.  I will have a routine to keep me busy.  I will be surrounded by 20 kids who love me unconditionally.  I will be doing something I love.

I started back unofficially today.  I helped with registration and started working in my room.  Moving grades means moving rooms.  Moving rooms means a gaint mess!  And I hate messes!  I'll be back up there tomorrow to paint some book shelves, place furniture where I want it and start getting settled.  As much as this part of teaching stresses me out, I love it. 

Look for some progress pictures of the room and some first grade fun stories coming soon!  Until then, I'll leave you with one more pictures from my trip.

Us sailing...in case the flying hair didn't give it away.

And by the way, head over to Cupcakes Take the Cake and check out Kimmie's guest post and leave some love.

Meg in the City-Day Three

Sunday, Kimmie had another fun day plan.   After a wonderful breakfast, we got ready and headed out to Fisherman's Wharf.  We started with lunch at Hardrock Cafe.  Kimmie had found a great buy one get one free coupon for hamburgers.  After lunch, we walked around some, admired the sea lions at the pier and then found our dock for our harbor cruise.

Sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf

Kimmie had found a really great deal for a harbor tour on Groupon.com.  It was a 90 minute tour through the harbor on double mast sail boat.  We got to see Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge, and a great view of the city.  It was a bit chilly on the water, but not too bad as I was prepared.  Although, a beanie/tobagan/hat (whatever you call it) would have helped some, both with the cold ears and the crazy hair.

Our Sailboat

Alcatraz

Our view

Golden Gate Bridge-Notice all the fog

Me a bit windblown

Next on the itenerary was Ghiradelli Square.  It wasn't a bad walk at all from the pier and the sun felt great.  While there, we had some great cupcakes at Kara's Cupcakes.  It was the best strawberry cupcake I've had.  We also stopped by the Ghiradelli store (of course) to pick up some of the new Caramel Latte chocolate bars.  Yum!

Wonderful Organic Strawberry Cream Cupcake

Our last stop for the day was at the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park.  There we admired the sites, took lots of pictures and enjoyed some tea.

My tea and rice cakes (I think)

Fun bridge in the gardens

Meg in the City-Day Two-Part 2

After leaving Castello di Amorosa, we set off for Sterling Vineyards.  This was another "must" on Kimmie's list of wineries.  Our tour began with a tram up the hillside.  Once we reached the top, we began our self paced tour.  Throughout the tour, their were 5 tables set up, each featuring on one of the wines for our tasting.  It was a beautiful winery with beautiful views of the area.

Us on the tram

View from the winery

Our next stop, V. Sattui Windery.  This winery had a beautiful picnic ground; however they did not allow you to bring your own food in.  Kimmie had packed us a wonderful lunch of cheese, crackers, salami and grapes...what else are you to eat when wine tasting?  So, we found a parking spot and had a picnic in the car.  The grounds were very pretty.  We chose to do a wine tasting and chocolate pairing with 5 white wines and 5 chocolates.  It was delicious!  While most wineries in Napa do not allow for weddings (think if 100 wineries had weddings on the same day with 100 guests each, that would be 10000 people in a very small area with a two lane highway), V. Sattui is able to have weddings.  It would make a beautiful setting.

Fountain at V. Sattui

Our chocolates

Our last stop, Cakebread Cellars.  Cakebread is a small family ran winery.  The people here were all very friendly, and very forgiving of the fact that we were five minutes late due to traffic.  Here we did a tasting.  The wines were more full bodied, a bit much for the end of the day, but still good.  With each wine, we heard about the history of that particular wine.  As it was the end of the day, we didn't really have much time to look around as they were getting ready to close.

The sign at the front

Us at Cakebread Cellars

Cakebread Cellars

What would be a better end to a wonderful day of winetasting you ask?   Cupcakes, of cours.  Kimmie found a wonderful cupcake place in Napa, Sift Cupcakery.  It was a cute little cupcakery in a dress shop, the Cakeplate, I believe it was called.  I decided to go with the Keylime Cupcake and it was amazing.  It was a vanilla cake with key lime filling and key lime mousse.  It tasted very natural and not overly sweet.  Yum! 

  

Key Lime Cupcake

It was a wonderful day!  I can't say thank you enough to Kimmie for all of her work in planning such a great trip!  Check back Monday for the last day of Meg in the City. 

Meg in the Cit-Day Two-Part 1

Saturday, we woke up early and headed to Napa Valley.  I'm not going to lie, this was the part of the trip that I was most excited about.  Kimmie and I had started doing Texas wine tasting 4 years ago and it became something we enjoyed together.  I was so excited to go to see what Napa was like.  Kimmie was such an amazing host.  She spent lots of time searching blogs and websites to find the wineries that we would.  And she did an outstanding job at selecting. 

The first winery on our stop...Castello di Amorosa.  WOW!  I was in awe.  We drove past many wineries on the way, but none had compared.  It was a castle!  Kimmie had signed us up for a tour and we were a bit early (due to having reschedule for being a bit late) so we looked around and took a few pictures. 

Castello di Amorosa

Us standing outside the castle

Me in front of the castle

 The view from the castle

When our tour started, we were relieved to find we had a wonderful tour guide.  The tour was about an hour long.  We saw the chapel where they actually hold Mass.  We saw the dining room and other various rooms.  But, my favorite part was the tunnels and caves.  The owner wanted this to be just like a "real" castle so he had created underground tunnels and caves.  The caves were build in the side of the hill and were used as cellars to store the wine in the oak barrells. 

If you are a Bachelor watcher, you may remember this castle from Jake's season.  The show had the girls staying the night in the castle and sneaking through the caves.  I was very sad to learn that the girls didn't realy stay the night there, as the castle doesn't allow overnight guests.  They had just pretended. 

Oak barrels in the cave

Chapel

The dining room-all handpainted

Inside the castle

After the tour, we were able to taste the wines.  Our tour guide was so kind and suggested we each share our wines so that we could taste more of them.  She even let us try a few extras.  In addition to our pairing, Kimmie had signed us up for some chocolate pairings.  Very yummy!  I think both of us decided our favorite was their muscat cannelli- Il Raggio del Sole.  A nice "bubble bath wine" as we like to call them. 

Our Chocolates

It was by far my favorite winery of the day.  If you are lucky enough to to go Napa, I strongly suggest going to Castello di Amorosa.  I would recommend though, that you save this tour for the last, as no other tour or winery will compare. 

Us in the grapes

I had originally planned to fill you in on all the wineries we toured on Saturday, but that would end up being one long blog.  So stay tuned for the other wineries and for day 3.  And if you want to see more pictures or read Kimmie's take on it all, head over to her blog and check it out.